Recently, recordable/reproducible disc systems have become commercially available one after another which store and reproduce main information stored therein and attribute information concerning the main information (which is formed of text data, and includes management information corresponding to the main information, a disc title entered by the user, and a main information title corresponding to the main information).
The disc system of this kind includes a magneto-optical (MO) disc for mainly storing and reproducing music/voice signals as the main information, a rewritable CD (CD-R, etc.) system, and a DVD system for mainly recording and reproducing movie data as the main information, and a mini disc (minidisc) (hereinafter referred to as "MD") available from Sony Corporation as an applied system of the MO disc is a commercial product drawing attention of users.
Hereinafter, the recordable/reproducible disc system will be described by taking the MD system as an example. The MD records pieces of music or music information as the main information. Further, as the management information, when a music piece is recorded, a music number and a starting address of the music piece as well as an ending address and a date of recording of the music piece are automatically recorded, and when a disc title is recorded, a date of recording the disc title is automatically recorded. The disc title and the music title entered by the user are stored as text information. The MD system is disclosed e.g. in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) Nos. 6-325547 and 8-36868.
FIG. 18 shows an appearance of the mini disc (MD). Reference numeral 901 designates an MD cartridge accommodating a recordable/reproducible magneto-optical mini disc having a diameter of 64 mm (2.5 inches). To the front face of the MD cartridge, a main label 903 can be affixed, and to a side surface thereof, a side label 904 can be affixed. Reference numeral 902 designates an MD case for storing the MD cartridge 901 therein, and a case label 905 can be affixed thereto. The main label 903 to be affixed to the front face includes various types different in size, including the largest type having a size of approximately 36 mm.times.52 mm, and the smallest type having a size of approximately 36 mm.times.18 mm. The side label 904 has a size of approximately 4 mm.times.60 mm. Further, the case label 905 has a size of approximately 52 mm.times.72 mm. The side label 904 is also used by affixing the same to the side surface of the MD case 902.
These labels are provided as accessories of each recordable/reproducible MD, and each user manually writes on these labels with reference to a disc title, music numbers, music titles, play times, recording dates, etc. displayed on a display block of a playback system when the MD is played back by the system, and then affix them to respective proper portions of the MD cartridge and the MD case.
As is clear from the above example of the conventional recordable/reproducible MD, in the case of the recordable/reproducible disc system, it is presupposed that the confirmation of contents of the disc is carried out by checking the disc title, the main information titles, etc. displayed on the display block of each playback system when the disc system is played back by the playback system. Therefore, to make labels to be affixed to the disc cartridge for use, the user takes the trouble of manually writing the disc title, the main information titles, etc. displayed on the display block of the playback system on various labels and then affixing them to the respective portions of the disc cartridge. The procedure of making labels is very troublesome, as described above, and it is almost impossible to manually write lots of letters within a small-sized label. What is more, to make several types of labels has the problem that it demands much patience.
In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the invention to provide a label printer which automatically prints on labels to be affixed to a disc cartridge of a recordable/reproducible disc by using a disc title and main information titles written in the disc, and what is more, makes several kinds of labels at a time.